Chapter 10
Durmstrang had a holiday for Halloween that fell this year on a Monday; and so there was a half day on Friday too. And Madam Bacsó asked Jade to her office.
"There is an outbreak of Black Goblin Fever in Munich; if you are still determined to go through with this."
"I am" said Jade "Are you accompanying us, Agata?"
Madam Bacsó hesitated.
"Yes" she said "You are right; we need to win hearts and minds. And if it is a prophylactic we can also pass that out amongst the adjacent human population."
Jade nodded.
"I'll gather up my volunteers and see if Professor Rebet wants to go along too; we have some ready brewed doses, he's been helping me teach the brewing."
Madam Bacsó looked surprised.
"He put himself out?" she asked in astonishment.
"He put himself out – for people willing to pursue his subject" said Jade.
"And he does owe you" said Madam Bacsó.
Jade shrugged.
"That was no big deal" she said.
Jade only asked third and fourth years to accompany the older ones, the two sets of twins and the friends of the Eulenspiegels, and Scholastica.
She got most of the first and second years too with Axel Von Rabe explaining that they had, most of them, never seen goblins up close and if they were to be pursuing the proper course of taking care of such dependants it was only proper that they should. Jade applauded this attitude and told them not to stare.
Professor Rebet wanted to watch the effects of the potion in action; so he was ready to come.
And Jade made everyone who was going take a dose as a prophylactic of their own.
Ministry guards kept people back from the goblin street in Munich that opened off a wizarding street.
"Keep away, Ma'am, you and the children; there's black Goblin fever here" said one of the ministry men.
"Quite" said Agata Bacsó "THAT is why we are here; the children of Durmstrang have come to brew the cure that has been for some reason ignored, and my potions master to supervise them. We have all taken a prophylactic dose; stand aside and let the competent deal with this. We SHALL" she said loudly "Be handing out a prophylactic dose to all those who live in proximity to the Kobboldstrasse."
There was a ragged cheer from those watching who had started to make ugly noises about wasting potions on kobbolds.
Madam Bacsó swept past the ministry men like the pied piper of Hamelin with her charges in her wake.
"That was magnificent, Agata" said Jade quietly "Every inch a leader."
Madam Bacsó smiled.
"You have to believe in yourself" she said.
Jade smiled. THAT one she knew; and that her chosen tool knew also was useful. Jade hated all the lying but turning up as Jade Snape would have accomplished nothing.
A few disconsolate goblins slouched around the place. Jade snapped her fingers and beckoned one who looked less ill natured than some of the others.
"We have a cure for the black fever" she said crisply "Have people go to every apartment to apprise them that we will be handing out a dose to everyone; and find out for me in which apartments the people are too ill to leave so we may go to them. We will dose people more effectively if they are able to come out and wait in line as it is a fine day."
"Er…yes, noble witch" said the goblin.
Professor Rebet had set up a couple of large cauldrons in the middle of the street and the little ones were running errands for him.
A big swaggering goblin came out carrying a child of about five years old in one arm and a musket in the other.
"My son is dying anyway" he said "HE will test your potion; and if it does not work, I kill you, witch."
"Fair enough" said Jade "While he lives, the potion should work though if he is so ill he will still need some nursing. Here's some we prepared earlier" she added, lifting the child into her arms with the ease of one used to cuddling younger siblings. The child's breath was crepitant and painful "Drink this down, little one; it hurts I know but swallow it all, I pour it slowly. Sofie, my Blümchen, a wet rag to bathe his forehead; it will help speed the healing."
Sofie ran quickly and brought a cooling rag.
"Here Fraulein Von Strang" she said.
"Thank you…. Now then little Spatzi, do not cry; open up thy mouth and show papa how the spots subside."
The goblin man stared to see a witch giving an endearment name like little sparrow to his son; and as the child obediently opened his mouth he cried out in wonder.
"Why, his mouth was black with spots and his throat almost closed for them; now I see pink skin already!"
"Open up; if you're a community leader I need you healthy" said Jade crisply spooning in a dose. "This little one will need nourishing broth for a few days to build up his strength."
The goblin spread his arms.
"Alas, how will we get such? None will come in here until we are all dead or the disease run its course; we have no food."
Jade stared.
"And so you are more likely to succumb to the disease because you starve? Iniquitous! Gisela, you are no potioneer and are almost as loathsomely rich as me; take some of the little ones and buy food to make good broth. Why are you staring at me?" she said to the fourth year girl.
"I do not know how to make broth, Nefrita" said Gisela.
"How many live here?" asked Jade of the goblin leader.
"Some two hundred, noble witch" said the man.
"Hmm…. Get two dozen shin bones of cow and eighty chickens, twenty pounds of onions and as much of carrots and thirty pounds of potatoes" said Jade "We can make broth for a day or two from that so at least everyone has soup, strained for the illest, robust for those who are better. Get also one hundred loaves; and one hundred pints of milk, damn that's er, oh get fifty litres more is better than less. Any left over bread will make bread pudding, so get a stone of raisins too and ten pounds of sugar."
"Yes Nefrita" said Gisela.
"I will help, Fraulein Von Freyer, I know how to cook!" said Elfleda.
"Good girl; you just got promoted to chief cook" said Jade "I need your sister brewing."
"AND we'll need more cauldrons and a portable oven" Elfleda went off explaining to Gisela..
Jade shook her head as she set up her cauldron.
"A few goblin women who aren't too ill to help my ridiculously ignorant clever friends might not come amiss when I've dosed them" she said to the goblin. "What is your name? I am Nefrita Von Strang."
"I am Neric, noble witch" said the goblin.
"Excellent; you will help me keep this organised and running smoothly, Neric" said Jade "And persuade those who are afraid it is a trick to take the dose. We would like to see all children taking a dose first, and the little ones here will carry medicine to those who are too ill to come out. In such apartments when all are well, we will brew also a spray that will kill the diseases left in clothes, bedclothes and plaster – it can lurk in plaster walls and start an infection if the plaster was put up by one who was infected up to a hundred years before, maybe more; if such crumbles, as plaster will."
"Is that so? I did not know that; the plaster here always crumbles – I was not making complaint" he added hastily.
Jade sniffed.
"Judging by the look of the housing from the outside I'd say any person had every right to complain; but I suppose you have unpleasant landlords. Traudl, take a memo, we're buying this place out and doing it up; nobody ought to live in such conditions."
"It is not fit for swine" said gentle Volodya "I have just looked inside one place. It has mould from damp on the walls. Nobody could have any artistic feeling in such a place; music dies here. I will contribute to making it better."
Neric was giving him a funny look.
"He's our resident genius" said Jade "No mind outside music; has to be kicked in the ankle to remind him to eat if he has a tune in his head. Don't mind him; it's not cheek, only his brain that has tact switched permanently off."
"I - please gracious witch, I never made criticism!" Neric was frightened.
"Oh do not worry; one might find Volodya a little odd until one is used to him; he means well. He takes no offence at you wondering – and being polite enough not to comment – on him being a tactless clot."
"Was I? Sorry" said Volodya. "I think we need Professor Rebet to poison people who own such houses and do not keep them in good repair."
"Don't tempt me" said Jade. "I reckon I could poison them very well myself. Untraceably too" she added thoughtfully. "Excuse me; we appear to have trouble. Who are those men, Neric?"
"They are enforcers for the factory owners, noble Fraulein von Strang" said Neric.
Jade passed her stirrer to Sofie.
"Stir once when it turns black; do not let the flames get high" she said as she moved towards the newcomers, putting herself between them and the children and queuing goblins. There were seven of them.
One of the enforcers called out,
"What are you filthy disease-ridden creatures doing out of your houses? Get back inside or I'll URK!" he finished as he dangled from one ankle.
"Or you'll what, lowborn?" said Jade "They are out at OUR orders; to be cured. YOU have not brought a cure; YOU have not seen fit to alleviate their distress; and if you work for the factory owners THEY will be glad to have their work force back fit and healthy."
"And who the hell do you think you are, miss interference?" said another.
"I am the Baronin Von Strang, ugly one" said Jade "And YOU are a nuisance. You may get out of my presence the lot of you now; or I might remember that you seem to have free access to this street and yet do not feed your masters' dependants and turn you into something nutritious. Hog roast might yet be on the menu."
He paled at her noble name.
"You naughty school children will be in trouble when your head finds out about this" he said "If you don't pack up and leave I shall write to her in Durmstrang."
"Do" said Jade cordially "If your trotters are capable of using a pen."
Where he had stood was a squealing porker.
The rest fled.
The goblins looked frightened.
"They will surely not punish you for MY actions will they?" asked Jade.
"Probably, noble lady" said Neric.
Jade swore sulphurously in fourteen different languages, most of them dead.
"We meet that problem when the people are cured" said Bertel.
"And then we threaten to ruin the factory owners if they let it happen" said Lazlo "How do they expect people to work if they have no decent place to live? Goblins may be inferior to humans but there is no excuse to treat them worse than animals."
"Abominable!" agreed Professor Rebet "None could thrive or develop in such a place; Snape found his potioneer in England doubtless where conditions are better."
"Certainly in England Goblins and poor wizards live in much better conditions" said Jade "And any apartment owner who let his premises get into such a condition would be prosecuted; Lucius owns a number of blocks and he says an owner must continually check up on their agent to see they do not get greedy, at least once a year, and to see that all problems have been addressed. The Baddock family were prosecuted for permitting a continuance of rising damp and a crack in the plasterwork and were also forced to drop their rents since water and toilets were communal in the block they owned; Lucius blew the whistle on them. Mind you, if he'd been a friend of the family he'd have dropped them a word first; but Lucius has his malicious moments."
"Lucius Malfoy is an examiner for chanting in England is he not?" asked Professor Rebet "And a very important man I believe."
"Oh my grandsire is the richest wizard in the world" laughed Jade "I wonder if he has shares in any of the people that own this place? If he has I can write and ask him to interfere; Lucius likes goblins, he has a goblin mistress and a string of goblin step children and a selection of blonde half goblin kids to go with the brats of his wife and other two mistresses; he'd be a tart if he didn't have them all living with him."
This was for Neric's benefit and any other goblins who were listening; so that they know just HOW different things were in England.
"Excuse me, noble witch, but what is the life for this noble wizard's step children?" asked Neric.
"Well the oldest is taking the equivalent of ZB's this year at Hogwarts school; I think that there are currently four of them in school; no I lie, three; Lucius has thirty odd brats all told, and I think there are er, three humans at present in school too, almost enough for a Malfoy quidditch team except Erica's no good at quidditch. Gorbrin is, I believe, seeker for his school house and a prefect; he got scouted by Puddlemere United and turned it down because he plans to be an Auror – what is here called a Vehmgericht – and is very serious about his studies. He took his Potions and Transfigurations exams a year early and got an 'O' grade in both; Lucius was boasting about it. Lucius reckons he should get 'O's in most of the other ten exams he's doing too; and Lucius likes to boast about his kids. However! That's by the by; have we got everyone out who should be, and medicine in for everyone that needs it?"
"Yes noble witch; and glad we are to have someone who knows English ways and has compassion."
Jade shrugged.
"It is uncultured to be so rude as to fail to show compassion or to treat underlings so badly" she said. "There is a duty from the highest even to the lowest; such that any true hochgeborn should recognise, and that goes for care towards lowborn wizards also. This is NOT England and the equality of goblins and wizards hardly likely to occur; at least not in our lifetime. Do not look for that! It would but bring pogrums upon any that demanded it. Work with me towards such change as may occur and be content with that."
Jade caught Neric's eye; saw him work out that she meant that she could not say more; and saw his acceptance and a nod. He was not a stupid man and nor was he unduly greedy. He was a realist. And THAT was what they needed.
All the goblins were finally dosed; those who were illest showed the most dramatic improvements of course; and the young Durmstrangers had the embarrassing situation of mothers kneeling weeping to kiss their feet for the saving of children. Jade's friends swallowed distaste to follow her lead in holding small children to dose them. Traudl tried not to look too horrified when Jade thrust a toddler at her.
"Distaste because you know we are closely related to them, we part fey?" asked Jade quietly.
"I – what? Are we?"
"Goblins broke away from the fey; it's why everyone distrusts them; humans saw them at first as fey, and the highfey, who could not control their erstwhile servants, made sure to foster that distrust" said Jade. "Being closer to the highfey, we are more closely related to goblins than to house elves; who are as closely related on the other side."
"You don't find them distasteful" said Traudl half angrily "You've been lying!"
"I told you, I haven't told all the truth. You knew that from the first. You're angry because you don't want to be related to them. Hey, Katarina Nachtigall doesn't want to be related to Heinrich Quabbelig. It's no big deal. I thought you might be interested."
"I want to know all the truth about you."
Jade sighed.
"All right; I'll tell you – later. When we're back in school. I haven't got time now. I have to rehydrate this baby before she dies of that. Now you hold her and I'll pour fluids into her."
Traudl nodded. The baby was listless and almost lifeless; the disease cured but the child had refused to swallow fluids because of the swollen pustules in her throat. Jade carefully spooned in slightly sugared water a spoonful at a time; until the child was swallowing of her own accord then passed Traudl a feeder cup full of milk.
Traudl breathed again, and realising she had been holding her breath, waiting for the child to swallow. The little girl opened big dark eyes that filled with terror.
"Nefrita, why is she scared of me?" demanded Traudl.
"Keep your voice low and calm" said Jade "Because all she knows about witches and wizards is that they hurt people. It's all right Honigengel, Traudl will not hurt you; drink the good milk and get well. Mama is over there with thy brother."
"Mama?" said the baby.
"See I will move so you can see her" said Traudl.
"And I will see how your excellent little sister is doing with stew" said Jade.
Elfleda was coping with great aplomb, cooking up the bones for stock in one cauldron and boiling the chickens in there too while cooking the vegetables and cooked chicken meat in the other as soup, straining off the broth for the smallest and weakest.
"Scrape marrow out of the long bones too and put on bread for the older children" said Jade.
"Oh, can you eat it?" said Elfleda.
"I'll say; it's delicious" said Jade "And full of goodness too. Don't you know your Norse myths, when Thor killed his goats Gaptooth and Cracktooth and Loki tempts the peasant boy Thialfi to crack the bone for some marrow, and Thor made him come along as his servant because the goat whose shin he broke was lame when Thor brought them back to life?"
"I'd forgotten the story" said Elfleda. "It never really made sense."
"Well, shalt not take marrow for thyself mein Vöglein; for it must go to those that need it" said Jade "Shalt make thine own soup at home and eat it with toast spread with marrow and good dripping."
"Yes Fraulein Von Strang" said Elfleda obediently.
"We all learn much" said Leva, who was helping Elfleda.
"One should not despise all parts of the meat just because some parts are supposedly of better status than others" said Jade, who had been rescuing the giblets that Elfleda had discarded "These make good stock also, Vöglein and I will take out the liver for the small ones."
The schoolchildren ate too of good hearty stew and toast when feeding all the rest; and took a well deserved rest.
"And what now, Nefrita?" asked Agata Baksó "We can hardly stay here overnight."
"I wanted to see if these factory owners took any action; they are doubtless also the landlords of these disgraceful buildings. I would not see these goblins punished for our actions."
"They may be waiting until we go" said Bertel "Why do not some of us stay and deal with them after the majority leave?"
"Excellent idea" said Jade. "Indeed why don't we all leave and then us oldest ones apparate back? Except perhaps Traudl and Volodya; they are not I think ready for extreme violence. Bertel, it does not scare you or Lazlo, does it?"
Bertel shook his head.
"I too will fight those who betray their blood; I despise goblins but I do not see a need to keep them thus" said Ritter.
"And I will fight" said Cacilia.
"Good; Traudl and Volodya to see the little ones back with Madam Bacsó and Herr Rebet" said Jade.
They filed out, and Madam Bacsó handed out bottles of prophylactic to willing hands; and as they passed down the street, Jade caught hands with her friends and smoothly apparated back into the Kobboldstrasse, covering the sound of their apportation with her own elf-blood abilities.
They did not have to wait long.
A couple of dozen wizards with whips and sticks burst into the street from the other end.
"Now we'll see who takes orders from whom!" cried the leader.
In a flash of green light he turned avocado green, grew wriggling spider legs, became jelly boned and wriggled under the tickling curse.
"Donner und Blitzen, Nefrita, I thought you'd hurled the killing curse there for a moment!" said Cacilia.
"One of Draco's spells; Avocado Kedavra" shrugged Jade. "Come on; let's get creative."
With Jade's drilling of her friends in the shield charm there was little chance of them taking damage from the semi educated, vicious men; Jade did not bother to get her wand out, but whistled a curious little tune glancing at three to set them dancing to a bizarre combination of the tarantellegra curse and the honky-tonk twinkletoes curse, dancing the polka rather wildly with their feet playing Strauss in a way that would have made the composer apoplectic had he heard it.
Jade's friends duly jinxed a couple each of the others, and Jade moved on to finish off the rest, hoisting them in two groups into the air by the ankles and dropping the tickling curse on them for good measure.
There was very little as humiliating as being dangled by one ankle even without giggling helplessly from being tickled. Jade though it quite horrible that one of her captives visibly physically enjoyed the stimulus, though he burned scarlet with mortification over it. She tried hard not to look.
Some things were too gross.
And his underwear could do with washing anyway.
"Achtung" said Jade to the green spokesman, releasing him from the tickling curse so he could give her his full attention "Your employers are scum. This street and all its inhabitants are under the protection of Durmstrang school. They are not to be bullied. Any owners of the buildings who put them in good repair and behave as though they had at least pretensions to be hochgeboren even though they strive fruitlessly on the scale of development to approach flobberworms for their culture, pleasantness and personal habits will please us. All others will, ultimately, be ruined and their businesses taken over; they are warned. We will know what happens here; because we will be taking with us a goblin boy and a goblin girl to be page to the boys and maid to the girls who will receive without fail an owl bearing a message from their family to the effect that all is well. If that owl fails to arrive, or if ritual magic performed on the message shows it to have been written under duress, then we go directly to the source of the trouble and start to get SERIOUS in our magic. And if one of our correspondents IS placed under duress, believe me there are worse things than the entrail expelling curse. Have you ever seen someone turned inside out slowly? No? Well, I was raised in England so I've learned a thing or two from seeing what the Deatheaters got up to under Voldemort; because believe me, Gerhardt Grindelwald is a pussy cat next to Voldemort. Do I make myself pellucidly clear?"
He was shuddering; which did horrible things to his jellied form.
"Yes Fraulein" he said.
"Good; you may dejinx yourselves" said Jade.
They all looked horrified.
"They don't know how" said Lazlo.
"Damnit, I keep forgetting how ignorant the hoi polloi are" said Jade, flipping a negligent hand and returning all to normal. "Get out; and stay out."
They went at as fast a walk as they could without losing all dignity.
"Who are you taking, Fraulein?" asked Neric respectfully.
"Volunteers" said Jade laconically. "If they do not have literate parents they must designate one who is literate to write to them."
Neric looked relieved.
"I am glad the noble witch realises not all are literate" he said.
"And that is a disgrace too; perhaps we shall be able to train the two younglings we take that they may come back and teach basic literacy and arithmantic skills and simple potion brewing" said Jade "Pepperup potion, and this easy brew to cure the black fever for example; contraceptive draughts so your women are not weakened having a baby every year to the detriment of their health and that of the babies."
Neric knelt to kiss her feet.
"You do much for us!"
"I wish you wouldn't do that" said Jade "You a grown man and a leader of men; we are just youths who see that there are things wrong and are determined to try to make things right. You are our ally, Neric. Now I pray you, call forth those that would volunteer; we will pick those too young to make much difference working for their families."
Neric stared in dumb gratitude; she knew everything!
"I – I would suggest my daughter" he said "Fyra is hard working and quick to learn; and I am literate and so is she."
"Excellent" said Jade "I shall certainly consider her most deeply. But I will not be unfair and pick one without seeing all who might wish to come. Though I think you have a better job and can better afford to lose her, and that too I shall take into account."
Fyra was a bright eyed child, who managed a tentative smile. She was the most forthcoming of the little girls aged between eight and ten; and Jade nodded.
"Yes; Fyra we shall have" she said.
The small boy who had managed to attach a notice saying 'kick me' to the back of one of the departing wizards was also an obvious choice; and Neric introduced the boy, Alrik, and his father Torik.
"Torik works in the bank" said Nerik "He will be willing to risk working for change."
Torik nodded.
"If this is no short lived gimmick, begging your pardon, Lady."
"It isn't" said Jade. "It will take as long as it takes; but I plan to buy out all the factories and houses here and in other places too. Are you a financial adviser, or can you put me in the way of one?"
His ears went up.
"They let goblins be financial advisers in England noble witch?" he asked astonished.
Jade blinked.
"I didn't know there were any financial advisers who weren't goblins" she said "Nobody who is anybody is without a goblin business manager. Well, I suppose if it is done differently here, I had better not ask for a goblin business manager, or he won't be taken any notice of. What a nuisance!"
"There is a young noble wizard at the bank where I work who has been in trouble for being civil to us goblins who has spoken of trying to get freelance work" said Torik "His name is Herr Ruprecht Schutzmann."
"Does he have a little sister called Gisela?" asked Cacilia
"Yes, noble witch, he does have a sister" said Torik "He speaks of her; she is at school."
"She is a fag of mine" said Jade "Because I know the girl she used to fag for, who wanted her protected. She is a good hard working girl; she was one of the younger ones here helping us. I will speak to her of her brother and perhaps you will ask him to write to me. Here" she conjured a business card from mid air and passed to him.
"I shall do so most gracious witch" said Torik.
"As for you, young Alrik" said Jade "You will NOT make the men you run errands for into objects of derision by playing tricks on others; if you MUST break out in mischief, confine it to the likes of apple pie beds for your own men or those of their fags as you will meet; any trouble and we shall not be allowed to keep you and teach you more; do you understand and more to the point will you obey?"
He grinned unabashed.
"Yes noble Fraulein and yes" he said. "The noble Fraulein is most thoughtful to ask if I obey as well as if I understand."
"I remember being your age" said Jade dryly.
Madam Bacsó raised an eyebrow at the appearance of goblin servants.
"The insurance for the rest" said Jade "They will have a message every week from their fathers; and so if anything is done against the goblins in the street we will know by the non-arrival of an owl or by the arrival of an owl bearing a message of woe. Far easier to force the landlords and factory owners to comply by making them see that we have this thought out – I sent them message that we should do this you see – than to have to react to them AFTER they have hurt our goblins that we're stealing from them and maybe shaken their faith in us. Being nice once is not enough; we need to commit to take care of them. And when those of us with the wealth to do so have bought out the whole lot, we shall. And then we start on the factories employing human workers to improve them; and when we have a huge industrial base at our back and its workers ready to rise for us, we've as good as won – because we all pull together. Unlike the current factory owners who, I wager, pull the way that enriches themselves only."
"Clever" said Madam Bacsó "You have thought it through very well my dear."
"I copy Lucius; who actually doesn't notice if someone's human or goblin any more I don't think. He's more interested in whether they can do their job or not I suppose" said Jade. "These children are the children of slightly higher class goblins; if they prove clever enough we might wish to win more support by sponsoring them to Prince Peak when they are old enough. Start that educated elite I was mentioning. The girl is the daughter of that Neric I was getting to help organise stuff; he's a foreman at a factory, and well respected by the other goblins. A good one to start with."
"I agree" said Madam Bacsó. "Yes; see what they can learn. We do not want to send ones who will fail; it will not help our cause."
"Quite so" said Jade.